I find myself today in possession of a Hardy LRH and a Hardy Princess. Another tough dilemma . Which is more versatile? Can I use a 4wt on the Princess. I'm sorry, I compare everything to the Abel Creek. The Creek 2 seems to be nearly the same dimensions as the Princess. Thanks in advance for your input. I may have to keep them both. Please don't say anything to my wife . I was looking for a reel for a 7'6" 4wt glass rod and I feel into this dilemma .

The Princess may be a little big for a 7'6" glass rod, but it's worth a shot. If it balances good you might as well use it. The LRH or a Featherweight may be a better match for said rod. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you happen to keep the Princess or get another reel

A Princess is not too much in the way of weight than that LRH, and may fit up with the rod just fine. You will at least have a choice of reels to work with. I use a Princess on an 8' cane rod with a #6 line, to load a #4 would just mean an additional 1/8 to 3/16 inch of backing on the arbor. I like the spools full for both appearance and for rate of retrieve, in the picture below you can see the depth of backing all the way out to the second series of perforations on the spool. If I were going to load a #4 line instead of the DT 6 that is on the reel pictured I would probably fill the backing to cover those perforations of the second row.

Essentially they are the same reel, one being just a 1/4 inch larger in diameter than the other. The check tensions will be similar and other than the added diameter they will look very much the same on your rod. Myself, I like larger reels rather than tiny ones. It is always tough to know where a reel will balance out on a rod without actually having the reel with line and backing to put on the rod and then string it up. Once you have line out to the tip top I really like it when the whole outfit will balance on the tip of a finger right at the very top of the cork grip. I have my reasons for this but when a rod, reel, and line will do as I describe it is hard for anyone to say the outfit isn't 'balanced'. Rods set up like this are very much a pleasure to carry when walking. You do not have to maintain a death grip on the cork, you can just let it cradle or hang in your relaxed hand. When they are either tip or butt heavy you must keep pressure on as you grip and walk with the rod. If you don't maintain a tight hold on a rod that does not have a good balance point, either the tip is trying to dig into the ground as you walk or it is rising toward the overhanging brush and limbs. That all may sound like hair splitting but once you have balanced rods and reels you will perhaps become accustomed to them and strive to set them all up this way. Every rig I own is balanced when in hand, I know that when casting this is all moot but for the reasons I've mentioned I balance them all.

__________________Anywhere can be the land of great expectations, broken dreams, or paradise found, it's all up to you.

Thanks Ard! Thats exactly what I was thinking. I guess I just wanted to have an opinion from someone more experienced. I'll try both reels. It's just a fun experiment and I wanted to talk about it. As always, thanks for taking your time to respond. I'll let you know what becomes of this latest project.
Fred

You know, I had an LRH for years but seldom used it. The problem was that it was just a tad heavy for some rods while being light for others. Obviously Hardy felt the need to fill the niche albeit a small one, between the Featherweight & the Princess. For me I realized that I would have to find and buy a rod to fit the reel and I never did. I sold the reel in 2008 to someone who is no doubt using it. However, today I find myself doing the same things all over. Recently I bought another Martin MG-3 but this one is in unused condition. The reel came with extra spool and a leather pouch, I never knew they made the leather pouch for those reels............ Anyway, the whole thing was in the original box with all papers and original sales receipt dated 1882. The one I have was inherited from a fishing buddy and good friend who passed away in 1992 and I must admit that Charlie was hard on that reel. This new one is so nice that I will probably keep it and will have to find an appropriate rod for it now......... They are very much like Hardy Lightweights and when new they were tight & crisp, to use some descriptive terms about the construction and feel of the reel.

It's because of that reel that I was familiar with the rod you are buying, I was shopping for 6'6" fiberglass blanks in 3-4 weight and came across that rod. Did you get it? I still don't know what I'll do, maybe blank, maybe a nice period glass rod to match up? The funny thing is that here where I liv I don't use light tackle very often but as I continue to collect these things I'll be found more often on small creeks and rivers where they will fit in.

__________________Anywhere can be the land of great expectations, broken dreams, or paradise found, it's all up to you.

In the Hardy Lightweight series I consider the Featherweight a 3/4 weight reel, the LRH a 5/6 reel, and the Princess a 6/7 reel. 4 weight is hard to match in the Lightweight series, because a Featherweight won't hold much backing with a #4 line, but an LRH has a pretty big diameter and might look oversized on some #4 rods, especially the ones with daintier grips.

Between the LRH and Princess there's not much difference in weight in the reels themselves, but when you put enough backing on a Princess to fill the spool with a 4 weight line, the whole thing might not balance with some 4 weight rods. Also, the Princess's diameter is even bigger than the LRH's.